6 Reasons Why People Act Like That During Pandemics

Nicole Hilbig
14 min readSep 23, 2021

According to Gustave Le Bon‘ s „Psychology of Crowds“

During the corona pandemic, we are witnessing how society has split. Again and again we read the terms “Corona denier”, “Corona-belittled”, “Corona fearful” and “Corona believer” in all the headlines.

Many people ascribe themselves to certain groups, although they couldn’t be more different in character, essence and career. Particularly noticeable are the newly formed groups under the motto of walking the “opposing and denial path in the corona pandemic” together, known as “corona deniers”.

The question arises as to why this is so. Why such groups form with people of different origins and why they think so united about one thing. And above all, why so many people follow this “belief” movement — which is usually contrary to their common sense. In the midst of a global pandemic in which thousands upon thousands of people died and are still dying. How can that be?

The French psychologist and doctor Gustave Le Bon gave us answers over 100 years ago and explained how the psychology of the crowds, including in pandemics, develops and works.

The Construct of the “Psychology of Crowds” by Gustave Le Bon

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Nicole Hilbig

I love learning and writing about the changes in our digital era. My topics are future, work, productivity, writing, education & personal stories.